Kinkaku-ji (The Golden Pavilion) — Eizo Sato, original Japanese woodblock print, signed & numbered 2/20

Importing Art into the United States is exempt from all U.S. tariffs but please, do check!

Kinkaku-ji Reflected: A mid-century Sōsaku-Hanga woodblock by Eizo Sato

A striking sōsaku-hanga (creative print) interpretation of Kyoto’s most photographed landmark, this woodblock print by Eizo Sato distills the Golden Pavilion into bold, flat planes of lacquer-black, gold-yellow, and jewel-toned blue and green. Rather than the delicate line work of classical ukiyo-e, Sato works in the mid-century “creative print” idiom — angular, faceted color shapes built up in layers, closer to a stained-glass mosaic than a traditional landscape print. The pavilion’s gilded upper stories float above a screen of pines, its reflection breaking apart across the surface of Kyōko-chi pond in silvery grey and turquoise fragments.

The composition is inscribed in pencil by the artist with the print’s title in Japanese (金閣寺, “Kinkaku-ji”), numbered 2/20, and signed “Eijo Sato” in the lower margin — the hallmarks of a hand-pulled, limited-edition original rather than a later reproduction. A small red seal is stamped within the image itself. The print is presented in a simple pale wood frame with a wide white mat, letting the saturated palette carry the composition.

Kinkaku-ji, the Rokuon-ji temple’s Golden Pavilion, has drawn Japanese and Western printmakers alike since the early twentieth century — its gold-leafed façade and mirror pond a natural subject for exploring color and abstraction. Sato’s geometric handling here places him visually alongside the great sōsaku-hanga colorists of the postwar decades — most notably Kiyoshi Saitō, whose own iconic treatment of this exact subject helped define the style — who reduced Japan’s temples and gardens to their essential shapes and hues for a modern, design-forward audience.

A vivid, graphic addition to any collection of modern Japanese prints, and a genuinely hand-pulled original from a very small edition of twenty.

Details

• Title: Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺), The Golden Pavilion, Kyoto
• Artist: Eizo Sato
• Technique: Original woodblock print (mokuhanga), sōsaku-hanga style
• Edition: 2/20, pencil-numbered
• Signature: Signed and titled in pencil by the artist; red seal in the block
• Condition: Vintage/period print, framed
• Dimensions (framed):
• Height: 36 cm / 14.2 in
• Width: 44 cm / 17.3 in
• Depth: 2 cm / 0.8 in

A note on the artist

Eizo Sato does not appear in the standard English or Japanese reference literature on twentieth-century Japanese printmaking, nor in the major auction and dealer archives — no exhibition record, gallery representation, or price history could be located. This isn’t unusual for the period: alongside the internationally celebrated names of the sōsaku-hanga movement, many capable printmakers worked in small, hand-pulled editions — this one numbered just 2 of 20 — selling through local studios and shops in Kyoto rather than through the exhibition and export channels that built lasting reputations abroad. What can be said with confidence sits in the object itself: a genuine, hand-signed, hand-numbered original, executed in the bold flat-color idiom that defined the era’s most celebrated printmakers, at a considerably more accessible price point than their work commands today.

Colors may slightly vary due to photographic lighting sources or your monitor settings.

The print will be shipped insured overseas. Cost of transport to the US, Euro 155.

Wear consistent with age and use.

We ship worldwide. Request a shipping quote by e-mail to tacojoustra@vintageobjects.com mentioning the piece you are interested in.

Pick-up by appointment only.

We are a 1stDibs Platinum 5 Star Dealer.